Deer - a "menace"?

https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2018/12/20/deer_are_a_menace_and_we_need_to_kill_a_lot_more_of_them.html

What if, absent the natural predators for deer, they are a menace as hunters have said they would be all along absent hunting?

What if the bambi idea is backwards - that deer are eating plants to extinction and their populations have grown all too fast after being devastated by the deforestation of the early 1900s?

That seems to be true, not to mention their risk to humans in cars.

I love deer. I've hunted them all my life. I like to see them, hunt them, eat them. They are beautiful. The whitetail is apparently more adaptable than the mule deer, which is decreasing in numbers.

I hope the human race keeps learning how to help them live in balance with the rest of nature.

Climate Change or Not

Interesting speculation:
"Climate change itself is already in the process of definitively rebutting climate alarmists who think human use of fossil fuels is causing ultimately catastrophic global warming.  That is because natural climate cycles have already turned from warming to cooling, global temperatures have already been declining for more than 10 years, and global temperatures will continue to decline for another two decades or more."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2012/05/31/sorry-global-warming-alarmists-the-earth-is-cooling/?fbclid=IwAR2xkFsqCfQtXP-KXU0WX2yqJdfiSQEyrbx_v1SpyWO2Z_zIMN9fDGlVkH0#5aa3911b3de0

A new federal report on climate change predicts dire consequences if action isn't taken. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria.

Sorry, that's Bill Murray in “Ghostbusters.” But Murray's classic oration is only an exaggerated form of the predictions contained in the report, which include early death, food shortages and pestilence. Thus, environmentalists are dismayed that President Trump and much of the public have responded with a shrug.

They shouldn't be surprised, because there is little appetite for embracing meaningful climate change policies and there's a long history of such reports crying wolf.

https://newsok.com/article/5616517/skepticism-a-reasonable-response-to-climate-report

Why 536 was the worst?

Volcano on Iceland ....
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

Good bye Levi's ...

Levi’s Teams with Billionaire Michael Bloomberg to Attack Gun Rights

That company won't miss the $40 or so I spent on their product as much as I will miss knowing what jeans I like to wear. Tried LL Bean, not terrible, will try Duluth Trading Post next. 

CO2 Reductions Aren't Free

Writing for Commentary, Abe Greenwald notes that it “turns out that people — not just Americans — care deeply about melting ice caps and rising sea levels only under specific circumstances. Namely, when they can be blamed on the greed and stupidity of their political enemies. They find that they suddenly care a lot less when addressing climate change means shelling out a few extra euro cents. So the French came out in droves, lit bonfires, tore up some buildings, blocked streets, and chanted slogans.”
https://newsok.com/article/5616517/skepticism-a-reasonable-response-to-climate-report

A very easy way to reduce CO2 would be to ban pets of all kinds - but that will never be advocated because the advocates know they can only sell this disaster if they avoid showing how painful it would really be to reduce CO2 emissions. 

Common Sense Gun Reform and Other Unicorns

This is why I opposed back ground checks all those years ago - they don't work, they are expensive and they reinforce the idea of dependence on government for our safety.

https://www.nraila.org/articles/20181130/anti-gun-researchers-undermine-the-anti-gun-narrative